I just started in my first GIS job after my MSc, and I'm the only GIS guy in the village so to speak - so forums like this will hopefully be my lifeline!

I've been charged with getting an ArcView 9.1 GIS our survey company was asked to build for a large house bulders here in Scotland. It's been basically mothballed for three years near enough due to the recession etc.

Basically, during that downtime there has been a server move and the file paths to all the data have changed.

There is a seperate .mxd project file and assosiated CAD files and assosiated legal documents etc for each of the sites this company owns, which is well into the hundreds.

All the data as I say now exists on a different drive and therefore the project files cannot locate the data.

Basically, I need to know how to re-assosiate the hundreds of different .dwg CAD files with the project view. I've attached this screenshot to show you what a typical project file looks like.

Double clicking each layer and manually browsing to the data path would take weeks to do all the files. I can't drag and drop the CAD files, this results in an error.

I can't 'Add Data' as while this DOES import the CAD drawings fine, it needs to be sorted out into points/lines/areas and named properly like in the above screengrab. I could do this manually of course but it would take days and days to re-sort things. The below photo is how the Add Data option brings in the drawings;

There must be a way of getting ArcGIS to know the new file paths without starting the project files over again and losing all the work that has been done...

The MSc is of little help so far!

Thanks so much, I desperately need some help on this one, even to tell me it can't be done or it needs a script written or somethig (I can't code to save myself, though I am learning!)

I did look into this tool but annoyingly our map documents are loaded with VBA customisations and this removes threm all!

It really should be automatically removing the exclamation points when I point it to the correct folder, but I tihkn it's because it is CAD layers that is stoppnig it from doing this. It's because a CAD feature is made up of points/lines/polygons/annotations and I need to drill down into the CAD data to point it to the respective data type, I assume this is what is stoppnig ArcMap from doing what it usally does with this.

Seems unless I can find an extension that does it for me it's going to be an exhausting manual process then!

There are multiple ways to do things in GIS. This is the method I would use. I'm sure there is probably a faster and more efficient way to do this, but this is what I'd do. Either in the Information button drop down or in the attribute table itself, reset the link to the current location. It might be easier if you do some maintenance on the files before hand. Such as move all the files for "building A" into a folder in a shared server. Then simply link the folder to that asset so when you scroll over it, all of the information pops up. I know that's how I'd do it. I've become very comfortable with this so It'd be a half days work for me, but for someone unfamiliar, it may take longer. Anyways, for what its worth, I am also the only GIS person in my office and I just graduated from college last may. I find Google to be my best friend. There is no question you have that hasn't already been asked somewhere. Good luck!

I've brute-forced it just for now, but it might need changed again, just to change the drive letter later on. I can't brute-force it again, it would kill me!

Thanks for the help, but I'm not too sure what you mean really.... there doesn't seem to be a link in the attribute table for the drawings... Sounds good if you can explain it a bit more though!

The custom scripts out there to repair broken data links don't seem to work with CAD drawings and when you drill into the dataset it is split into point/line/polygon/multipatch types - even if it's just for example a polyline contour layer for a topo survey or something...

Also thanks for the advice - google is indeed getting a thorough workout from here!

Go into your ArcCatalog and create a new field in your attribute table. When it asks if you want it to be a "text", "double", "integer" etc... click the one that says either "link", "HTML", or "hyperlink".. I know, I wish I could be more specific, but you get the idea... its in there. Be sure to make its atleast 100 characters to save you trouble in the future. Then what I'd do is I'd go put all of my links together for that attribute. I'd put them in a folder of some sort.

Once you have your folder set up with all your information, simply open the folder. When the folder is open, in your "my computer" files (C:) or whatever server you are using.. simply copy that Url of the opened folder. Migrate back to your attribute table for your assets and paste that Url into the new field you created. Save your edits and click on the lighting icon (hyperlink tool). there should be a blue dot over the asset. Click it and it opens you up to that folder you just created. This will give you easy viewing of whatever document/file you need that is linked to that asset. I really hope this helps.

Hi Murray, There is an easier solution for you in Catalogue. We are using ArcGIS10-ArcINFO so there is a chance that the tool may not be available to you with the version and license that you have available. So, open Catalogue and navigate to one of your mxd files, right click and open 'Set Data Sources...'. This provides options to set a new data source to multiple Layers. I suggest trying this on a copy of the original mxd just in case..